adjective
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limited; barely enough; meagre
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insufficient; inadequate
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lacking fullness; small
Related Words
Scanty, meager, sparse refer to insufficiency or deficiency in quantity, number, etc. Scanty denotes smallness or insufficiency of quantity, number, supply, etc.: a scanty supply of food. Meager indicates that something is poor, stinted, or inadequate: meager fare; a meager income. Sparse applies particularly to that which grows thinly or is thinly strewn or sown, often over a wide area: sparse vegetation; a sparse population.
Other Word Forms
- scantily adverb
- scantiness noun
- unscanty adjective
Etymology
Origin of scanty
First recorded in 1650–60; scant + -y 1; scanty ( def. 4 ) blend of scanty and panties
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Reliable data is scanty, but experts point to a 2009 government estimate of an export "capacity" of 800 tonnes -- enough to make the trade highly lucrative.
From Barron's
Because First Brands is privately owned, its financial disclosures were scanty, leaving its lenders largely in the dark.
From Los Angeles Times
India's data is scanty, officially recording around 38,000 drowning deaths in 2022, though the actual number is likely much higher.
From BBC
In any case, the evidence for long-term human health effects from the normal exposure to these chemicals is scanty.
From Los Angeles Times
The burials had scanty grave goods—a bead and a dog paw—so it’s hard to connect them to any particular material culture.
From Science Magazine
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
